YUFA
External
OCUFA Conference: Restructuring of the Academy: Current Realities and Preferred Directions
Toronto, January 19, 2007
by Susan Dimock, YUFA VP External
25 Jan 07 - I had the pleasure of attending on behalf of YUFA the most recent full day conference organized by OCUFA. It brought together academics and higher education activists from across Canada, as well as a small number of speakers from the US. The focus was on the nature of academic work, and changes which it is undergoing.
A number of alarming changes to the nature of academic work were noted and discussed. Among those that stand out most in my mind were the following:
The US seems to be following rapidly in the wake of the UK in abolishing tenure. Only 50% of all full-time academic appointments in the US are currently tenure track. The projection is that the number will be reduced to 30% by 2020 if current trends continue. (Martin J. Finkelstein, Seaton Hall University, New Jersey)
The number of academics working in part-time teaching only positions is also of concern. The extent to which university teaching is being performed by such academic workers has long been a concern, but a new trend seems to be emerging that introduces another set of issues deserving attention and further study: the extent to which part-time academic workers remain throughout their whole career on a part-time path. There are indications that part-time employees begin and remain on a part-time track for their entire careers in the US. A similar trend may be emerging for contractually limited, non tenure track full-time employees. There is need to study the situation in Canada to determine if there are three distinct academic careers emerging: full-time tenure track, full-time off tenure track, and part-time. The degree of mobility between these categories needs to be explored, as does the distribution of equity seeking groups within the three categories.
Many presentations touched on the disaggregation of academic work. The traditional model of academic work as comprising research, teaching and service is being eroded. While teaching only faculty have been with us at York and elsewhere since the 70s, we are now seeing increasing development of research only and service only full-time faculty positions. Members are brought into the academy as “research stars”, into endowed or Canada Research chairs, for example, with the expectation that they will engage in little or no teaching or service. This trend is especially worrisome for us at York at this moment in our institutional history, given the commitment to research intensification in the current University Academic Plan. Likewise, members are being brought into full-time positions in order primarily to perform academic service, as chairs of departments or directors of programs, for example. This disaggregation of academic work is a serious threat to a number of values at the core of higher education, and makes possible tiering among the full-time academic staff within a single institution.
Finally, looking ahead, we learned that demographic trends suggest that the current expansion of the post secondary education system (especially in Ontario) is unlikely to continue. There will be a decline in the number of high school graduates over the coming decade, even taking into account predictable levels of immigration. (David Foot, University of Toronto) Unless there is a very significant increase in participation rates in universities (made less likely as the needs of employers shift from university training to trades skills), therefore, the intense pressure we have seen on the university sector in the first years of the new millennium is not predicted to continue into the second decade of the 21st century. This will have a direct impact upon complement planning, of course, but also suggests that we may be in a very different economic environment (one of contraction rather than expansion) in the not-too-distant future. This may indicate that academic unions will have very different challenges to contend with in the next decade than they have faced in the last.
Other Reports from this
Conference:
Joan Allen
Indhu
Rajagopal